I heard that using a resistor for each LED in parallel is good, and I also watched a video on youtube. The guy said if your LEDs are the same type and color you can use just 1 resistor. Is there a simple explanation?
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2Does this answer your question? Why exactly can't a single resistor be used for many parallel LEDs? – Unimportant Apr 05 '21 at 16:50
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1Don't believe random "guys on Youtube". It's very easy to show why they're wrong, for example by looking at the answer linked to by @Unimportant. – StarCat Apr 05 '21 at 16:59
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What "the guy said" is true only on an industrial scale where you're buying 1000's of LEDs all from the same manufacturing production batch. It's not something you can rely on when you're only buying a few LEDs off fleebay or ali-bob's-your-uncle. – brhans Apr 05 '21 at 17:42
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You can only use one limiting resistor for several LEDs only if the circuit is "dynamic indication" type, ie. only one LED is lit at a time. Otherwise the current through the resistor will be divided by the other LEDs.
Peter MP
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2Hi, Peter. Your answer misses the point that the current won't be evenly divided due to the different forward voltages of each LED. Anyway, that point is probably addressed in the duplicate question link at the top. – Transistor Apr 05 '21 at 17:20